Private Equity

Most shelves were full yesterday at Boscov's in Plymouth Meeting Mall, but the scene of normalcy concealed the turbulence rattling the region's only surviving family-owned department store chain. The Reading company, in the hunt for a private-equity deal to rescue it from a potential merchandise shortage ahead of the critical fall shopping season, has waded into the kind of troubled waters that pulled California department store Mervyn's L.L.C. into Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday.

Most shelves were full yesterday at Boscov's in Plymouth Meeting Mall, but the scene of normalcy concealed the turbulence rattling the region's only surviving family-owned department store chain. The Reading company, in the hunt for a private-equity deal to rescue it from a potential merchandise shortage ahead of the critical fall shopping season, has waded into the kind of troubled waters that pulled California department store Mervyn's L.L.C. into Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday.

To many observers, it seems strange that two investor groups interested in buying Philadelphia Media Network Inc. have been rebuffed in their attempts to submit bids. Philanthropist Raymond Perelman and developer Bart Blatstein have each complained about being denied the chance to make an offer for The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com. PMN's owners, a group of financial-investment firms led by privately held hedge funds Alden Global Capital and Angelo, Gordon & Co., won't say why. Neither will Evercore Partners Inc., the New York investment bank hired to manage the sale of the parent company of the media properties.

Hamilton Lane, a Bala Cynwyd pension adviser and money manager, said yesterday that it sold a 40 percent stake in the company to an investment group that includes Bill Gates. The firm, which specializes in private-equity deals - investments other than stocks, bonds and real estate - declined to disclose terms of the transaction. "We're positioning ourselves to grow in an industry that is going through some consolidation," said Leslie A. Brun, the firm's chairman and founder.

Pennsylvania's state pension systems say their "alternative investments" - private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds - are more profitable than traditional stocks and bonds. But you'd have to take their word for it. Unlike their counterparts in some other big states, the pension plans that invest on behalf of 450,000 current and retired Pennsylvania state employees and teachers don't report how well - or badly - each alternative-investment manager is doing. And the pension systems, controlled by politicians and political appointees, want to make sure it stays that way: Three bills in the General Assembly would guarantee that pension managers could continue withholding that information, and more, by suspending the state Right to Know law. State Rep. Robert W. Godshall (R., Montgomery)

"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years" - U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1 By John E. Sununu The Constitution may be the foundation of American democracy, but the qualifications...

Eric Berg joined SunGard Availability Services, Wayne, as chief executive last year. The subsidiary of SunGard Data Systems helps companies plan for and recover from disasters that stop their computer systems. Sales totaled $1.5 billion last year, about 30 percent of the parent company's total revenue. Question: SunGard considered selling Availability Services three years ago; instead, the whole company was taken private. What happened? Answer: SunGard, Comdisco and IBM used to be the three big competitors in availability services.

A group of private-equity investors has joined the bidding for The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, a member of the group said yesterday. Their addition brings to at least four the number of bidders with permission from McClatchy Co. to review financial records at The Inquirer and Daily News in preparation for final bidding on the papers. The two papers are among 12 that McClatchy wants to arrange to sell before its scheduled takeover this summer of their current owner, Knight Ridder Inc. Christopher Harte, a former Knight Ridder executive whose family is among the owners of San Antonio-based publisher and direct-marketing firm Harte-Hanks Inc., confirmed yesterday that he is part of a group of private-equity investors that has joined the bidding for the Philadelphia papers.

Senate Democrats are caving to a well-financed lobbying blitz aimed at stopping them from imposing a new tax on the super-wealthy. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has quietly squelched plans in Congress to increase taxes on some of the richest wage-earners in the land: private equity managers. These wealthy individuals often earn hundreds of millions of dollars per year, which should subject them to an income tax rate of 35 percent. But because of a wrinkle in federal tax law, private equity managers pay only a capital gains tax rate of 15 percent on most of their income.

Cory Booker must feel like the halfback who finally gets to play in the big game — and fumbles the football. But he will get other chances. The Newark mayor's inarticulate handling of a Meet the Press question Sunday about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's prior career with the Bain Capital private equity firm was painful to watch, but not fatal. Since he was President Obama's surrogate, it was surprising that Booker seemed to defend Romney, saying he disagreed with Obama ads that appear to equate private equity firms with evil incarnate.

To many observers, it seems strange that two investor groups interested in buying Philadelphia Media Network Inc. have been rebuffed in their attempts to submit bids. Philanthropist Raymond Perelman and developer Bart Blatstein have each complained about being denied the chance to make an offer for The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com. PMN's owners, a group of financial-investment firms led by privately held hedge funds Alden Global Capital and Angelo, Gordon & Co., won't say why. Neither will Evercore Partners Inc., the New York investment bank hired to manage the sale of the parent company of the media properties.

Corporate buyouts of underperforming companies - "private-equity investments," as financiers prefer to call them - made Mitt Romney rich and launched him toward the presidency. So his Republican rivals, and President Obama , are blaming Romney for the factory and office closings, firings, transfer payments, and junk-bond financings that often follow buyout deals. And private-equity investors are jumping to the defense. "Attacks on private equity" threaten the most successful, productive sector of our depressed economy, argues Andrew T. Greenberg , investment banker at Fairmount Partners in West Conshohocken and chief executive officer at GF Data Resources L.L.C.

"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years" - U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1 By John E. Sununu The Constitution may be the foundation of American democracy, but the qualifications...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - With the GOP presidential race in South Carolina tightening Friday, front-runner Mitt Romney launched a TV ad that portrays his tenure as the head of a private equity company positively, while Newt Gingrich rolled out a Web spot mocking Romney's ability to speak French. The nastiness that usually accompanies this state's primaries continued to bubble to the surface as three polls released Friday showed a two-man contest shaping up, with Romney holding thin leads over Gingrich with little more than a week before next Saturday's vote.

From: The Obama reelection team To: Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry Message: Thank you, thank you, thank you! It's not often that President Obama gets to applaud Republicans for carrying his water. The president has long intended to paint Mitt Romney as a soulless predator who racked up huge profits during the '90s while frequently laying people off. He has long planned to cite Romney's Bain Capital tenure as proof that the guy is a card-carrying member of the 1 percent, a multimillionaire plutocrat ill-suited to feel people's pain in a recession.

The private-equity firm TPG Capital L.P. has agreed to purchase Northeast Philadelphia-based automotive-parts remanufacturer Cardone Industries in a deal expected to close by year's end, Cardone announced Friday. No terms were disclosed, but the family-owned company said it had signed definitive agreements to sell its North American operations to the private-investment firm. TPG Capital will become the controlling shareholder and work with the family to "continue the company's growth," Cardone said in a statement.

Layers of pharmaceutical companies operate below the level of the famous firms that pitch pills on TV. One big, unheard-of-by-the-masses operation - Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc. - agreed on Monday to be bought for $3.9 billion by private equity funds run by the Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman. PPD is a clinical research organization, meaning it does research but also conducts clinical trials of pharmaceutical products for other drug and medical device companies.